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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22651969">Chained heat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dizzydino/pseuds/Dizzydino'>Dizzydino</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, I don't know, Why Did I Write This?, be nice to the human Khessa, but hey, it was a 1am idea, roadtrip with sunny butt, soren is a good boy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:08:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,999</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22651969</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dizzydino/pseuds/Dizzydino</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Soren was done being good for his father, and he was taking the prisoner with him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>A slightly changed world</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Chained heat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
Soren stood with Claudia, watching the great golden city in the valley below go dark as their fathers magic took over. It made him sad, watching the glistening vista being overshadowed by the dark magic fuelled eclipse.<br/>
</p><p>
Maybe it would disperse?<br/>
</p><p>
He hoped it would disperse.<br/>
</p><p>
But he poked Claudia to reassure her that look, dad will be back soon! Stop worrying silly.<br/>
Sure enough, he turned up half an hour or so later, lord Viren arrived back to the camp, triumphant, a radiant sunfire staff in one hand, and an angry, thrashing Sunfire elf on the end of a chain in the other.<br/>
</p><p>
.. that was not part of the apparent plan.<br/>
</p><p>
The Elf was dressed in golden robes, with long blond hair and the most ornate looking horn guard/crown of sorts on her head. Her yellow amber eyes flashed in anger as Viren announced the victory to the assembled armies. She struggled constantly as Viren announced his plans to them, starting first light tomorrow. For now, they were to rest up, and celebrate the victory over the tyrannical sunfire elves.<br/>
Soren tried to hide his reaction as his father yanked the elf onto her knees, and grabbed her horns, making her look out over the assembled humans. The rage in her eyes was clear to all who could see.<br/>
</p><p>
“Zadia” Viren crowed “Has taken 4 queens from us over the last decade, but now, we take one from them! Behold! Her radiance, queen of the sunfire elves!”<br/>
Oh. That was why she was dragged here.<br/>
He should of known.
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
Viren did not kill the elf, like Soren thought he would, with the grand speech about how much Zadia had taken, and what they would take back and such and bla bla bla.<br/>
One would thought that the queen would be struck down then and there, with he way that Viren was talking. But no, she was dragged down into he camps, trough a crowd of jeering troops, still thrashing around at the end of her chain. Soren followed like a good little boy, trying to keep a straight face as he did.<br/>
</p><p>
Some of the things that the soldiers from Neolandia in particular was.. not very nice. Not the sort of things that you call a lady.<br/>
Or royalty.<br/>
</p><p>
Or a royal lady.<br/>
</p><p>
At least the katolian troops were being polite about things. In fact, some of them looked… uncomfortable with it. Very uncomfortable. Soren was with them at with that.<br/>
</p><p>
The queen was chained, by her arms and neck, to the central pole in the closest supply tent to Viren’s own royal lodgings. Far enough away that she would no be able to hear what was being planned by her captors, but close enough that the king would not have to walk too far to fetch her at first light.<br/>
Soren had to stand guard outside the tent, listening to the sound of his father taunting the bound and gagged queen, rubbing the events of the day into her face, on how her own hubris had led to her being where she was now. Bound, trapped, and at the mercy of a dark mage with big plans.<br/>
</p><p>
She was going to be very useful to him. Oh so very, very useful.<br/>
</p><p>
“rest now, my chained beauty.” Soren could almost imagen his dad grabbing the elf’s chin as he said that, “big day tomorrow. Oh? You want to know what’s going to happen? Now, now, that would be telling.” With a light chuckle, Viren left the tent a smirk on his face.<br/>
His little bug pal… was not so little anymore. In fact, it was huge, Wapping around his neck like one of those boa constrictors that diplomats from the tropics sometimes kept with them. It was now a very creepy crawly. Heh, He had to remember that one.<br/>
Soren tried not to show any reaction to the big bug pal, or to his father’s expression of gleeful malice leaving the tent.<br/>
He had to be good.<br/>
Viren turned to him for a moment. Just a moment.<br/>
“make sure she does not escape.”<br/>
And then he marched off, going over to Claudia. Talking to Claudia. Then he hugged her as they walked away. Soren felt his heart sink as he watched them go.<br/>
Soren sighed. And did what he was told.<br/>
He had to be good.
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
The elf spat out her gag about an hour later.<br/>
</p><p>
She had been yanking, pulling and just trying just about anything to try to get the chains off. By the time she had managed to get the gag out, it was clear that she was tired. Tired and angry. So, she just retorted to barking out insults at the slightest sound of movement outside of her makeshift prison. But as time moved on, even that started to taper off.<br/>
</p><p>
By midnight, she had gone quiet, with only some soft, snuffly sobbing coming from her. Soren’s heart went out to her. Enemy or no, it hard to lessen to someone break down like that. The camp itself had gone to sleep for the most part, with only the night watch and some of the horses making sounds.<br/>
</p><p>
Soren had not eaten yet. Nor had the elf.<br/>
</p><p>
Soren…. Gave up. He ducked off in the direction that the closest cooking fire to try and rustle up something for the two of them.<br/>
He was not even sure what elves ate.<br/>
Stew and dumplings had to be a good bet. At least, right?<br/>
</p><p>
He carried two bowels into the tent, placing his portion on a low table near the door and gently approached the unmoving elf. He got within touching distance, kneeling to be at eye height with her, and he tried not to flinch as her head snapped up. Her crown nearly clipped the end of Soren’s nose as she whipped her head up to glare at him.<br/>
They stared at each other for an extended moment before the elf huffed at him and turned her head away from him.<br/>
</p><p>
“so.. are you hungry?”<br/>
She did not respond, staring at the tent wall.<br/>
“come on, its good food! Honest.”<br/>
</p><p>
Soren scooped a little bit of stew and offed it to her. She sneered at the offering and returned to clearing at the wall of the tent. Her ears were pinned back as far as they could go, and her body was just flat out rigid.<br/>
</p><p>
Anger and fear.<br/>
</p><p>
Soren offered the spoon full of aromatic stew to her again.<br/>
“come on, just a bite? You must be hungry by now, right?”<br/>
The glaring did not abate, but the elf’s stomach let out a treacherous rumble. A small smudge of red appeared on her cheeks.<br/>
Soren tried one more time.<br/>
</p><p>
“please?”<br/>
</p><p>
The elf finally turned back to him, eyeing the stew with a look of disdain, but she gave it a sniff anyway, if deciding if it was up to her standards. Then her eyes flicked to something behind him. The anger in her yellow eyes turned to fear with in an instant. Soren spun about to see his father staring down at him with a look of anger.<br/>
Oh no.<br/>
</p><p>
“Soren. Why are you in here.”<br/>
“well..I… I thought….”<br/>
“I told you to stay outside.”<br/>
“I.. no you di…”<br/>
</p><p>
Viren slapped the bowl of stew out of Soren’s hand, splattering the steaming food all over the floor, bringing his staff around to clout Soren around the head.<br/>
The blow made Soren black out for a minute. He came to sprawled on the tent floor, his father standing over him, yelling something that his muddled brain just was not processing. Something about ‘stupid child’ and ‘can’t even follow the most basic of orders’. Soren’s head was spinning.<br/>
</p><p>
Viren glared at Soren for a moment longer, breathing deep, calming himself down, before sweeping out of the tent, flinging a final order over his shoulder.:<br/>
“stand guard outside and STAY THERE.”<br/>
Soren struggled up to his feet and staggered out to his post. He could swear that the elf made some sort of concerned noise behind him.<br/>
He paid it no mind.<br/>
His face hurt. He could feel the tears start to well up in his eyes.<br/>
It had been a long time since his father had last hit him in any way
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
The discontent amongst the Katiolen army was getting stronger as the night went on.<br/>
</p><p>
Yes, they wanted revenge for what had happened to King Harrow, and queen Sarai and all the others that Zadia had taken from them over the years, but this… this was not it. This was very much not it. The muttering had only gotten stronger when Soren had been spotted with the imprint of his father’s staff on his cheek.<br/>
And there was that… bug thing.. that the king was.. talking to? As in actually talking too, not pet talking to? Gah.<br/>
Add that to the rumours about what tomorrow was going to bring, something about them all gaining ‘hearts of cinder’ or something of the like.<br/>
None of them liked the sound of that.<br/>
</p><p>
And then, a Katiolen scout had stumbled upon General Amaya, alive and well, if a little singed.<br/>
It was Soren, of all people, who had formed a plan. A desperate, half insane plan, but a plan.<br/>
Rebellion was brewing.<br/>
And Soren was done being good for his father.
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
Khessa’s ears perked up, at the sounds of voices and footfalls outside of the tent. There had been quite a bit of hushed muttering and fast movement over the last hour or so.<br/>
</p><p>
“… you sure…” “very…. Now or never…..”<br/>
“… I saw... no very sure, with the elves… yes, alive!…<br/>
“Soren, please….”<br/>
“… she’s not coming…. Got to go before she tattles…”<br/>
“we can’t leave her.”<br/>
“we know..” “ just be quick! And keep her quiet.”<br/>
</p><p>
She stared at the door to her prison, there was now a whole pack of humans outside for some reason of another, talking about… well, she could not make out half of it. They were all talking in hushed, rushed voices.<br/>
The blond human boy from earlier ducked into the tent. He did not have food on him this time she noted.<br/>
What he did have, on the other hand, was a hatchet.<br/>
</p><p>
Khessa stared at the blade as the human approached her, breath caught in her chest. She was helpless, chained, and now….<br/>
She was not going to die like this.
</p><p>
She drew in a deep breath, and prepared to scream, kick, do anything to keep this murderous human away from her, only to have said human slap his hand over her mouth before she could make a sound.<br/>
She stared, wide eyed at him.<br/>
</p><p>
“shhhhh no nononon, be quiet.” Khessa glowered and nipped at his hand and tried to scream again.<br/>
The human dropped the hatchet and used both his hands to silence her.<br/>
</p><p>
“shush! Look, we’er gonna get you out of here, just for the love of the stars you need to be QUIET.” He hissed at her.<br/>
Khessa’s gold eyes met his blue.<br/>
“ok, now just hold still.” The human released her head, picked up the hatchet, and with a swing that would make any earthblood lumberjack proud, drove the blade clean trough the chain that bound her hands above her head to the wooden pole. The rush of blood returning to her hands was a strange one, bit she had no time to dwell on it, as the human grabbed the collar that the dark king had snapped mockingly around her neck (which still had a meter or so of chain attached) and dragged her to her feet and clean out the tent before she could really respond.<br/>
And then they were moving. And moving fast.<br/>
</p><p>
Tents and tents and tents whizzed past as they ran towards the edge of the frankly huge camp. Khessa had not realised how big this camp was. How many humans where there here?<br/>
how had she messed this up so bad?<br/>
Where was Janai?<br/>
Please, please, please say that Janai had make it out of this mess alive.<br/>
She would be a good queen.<br/>
</p><p>
The tents stopped abruptly, and they were in the forest, still running. There was other humans now, more and more were adding to the little troop that she was being dragged along by. They where all gathering just ahead- her eyes where bad at this time of day, there was next to no light, but it looked like most if all of them had the same armour style, and where leading pack animals with armour and bags.<br/>
What was this?<br/>
All these humans seemed to have a plan, and that plan was in action.<br/>
</p><p>
The blond was handed a white version of the pack animals the others had, minus armour, and with saddle bags stuffed full of supplies.<br/>
“what’s going on? I demand to know what’s going on!” she tried to keep her voice at a hiss, but she was still shushed by some of the surrounding humans.<br/>
The blond hopped onto the pack animal, made a motion for her to hop up too.<br/>
</p><p>
She gave him a disbelieving look.<br/>
</p><p>
“I. am. Not. Going anywhere. Until you tell me what. Is. Happening.”<br/>
“ok, ok. We” the blond motioned to the two of them “are gonna worn everyone at the storm spire about what is heading there way, whilst this lot” he grinned brightly at her and motioned to the rest of the small army “are going to find your lot and help them.”<br/>
Khessa gave him a blank look. He had to be kidding. 
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
He was not kidding. It took a couple of tries to get her on the animal (which she was informed was called a horse), looped the remaining chain around her neck and they were off.<br/>
The beast was fast. As the first rays of sunlight warmed the land around them, they were already making a significant head way across the Serengeti that separated Lux Aurea from the gentle rolling hills surrounding the storm spire.<br/>
</p><p>
They did not talk to each other as they went, Khessa did not want to talk to the human, she had nothing nice to say to him at all. And he did not make any attempt to talk to her. Khessa did end up sleeping for a bit between bouts of grumbling about anything and everything, basking in the feeling of the hot sun beating down on her back.<br/>
She cat napped a little more between attempts to wiggle the collar off when they stopped to let the horse rest.<br/>
</p><p>
She wanted a bath. The kind with soap. There was soap in the human’s saddle bags, he had gotten it out to wash his hands when they stopped, but bathing out in the open, still half chained, in front of someone she barely knew (a human at that!) was not something Khessa was going to do.<br/>
Just.. no.<br/>
</p><p>
The watering hole that they found already had some wildlife around it, which she payed no mind as she stretched out on the flat rock next to the water. stripy rambas, a heard of softly sparking ampelope and a young ambler all clustered around the glorified pond to drink in the midday sun. the human sat fascinated by them, watching the ambler in particular as it gracefully dipped its head down.<br/>
</p><p>
“what. Never seen an ambler before? Peh, of course not. You humans probably murdered them all for your dark magic.” She sneered at him. “shame.”<br/>
He ignored her, chewing on the jerky that he was eating. The horse was cropping some grass close by.<br/>
Khessa had refused to partake in the human’s food.<br/>
“what, no defence for your kinds dark arts?”<br/>
The human turned to her, the bruise on his cheek swollen and painful. He was silent, not looking at her, but off into the distance. Then he turned away, and went back to watching the wildlife.
Khessa huffed again. Humans. 
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
They hit the first of the softly rolling hills that marked the end of the grasslands by the time night fell.<br/>
</p><p>
The human had made camp. Tethered the horse so it could graze, and promptly disappeared for half an hour to hunt for some fresh meat, leaving Khessa next to the campfire. She poked at it. She wanted a bath. And her bed. And well, she flat out wanted to go home.<br/>
And her sister.<br/>
Oh, how she wanted her little sister. They had been drifting apart, with khessa on the throne, and Janai off doing whatever the golden knight did daily when she was not dragging stubborn humans in for questioning.<br/>
</p><p>
It was all that she could do to pray to the ancients that she had not met some sort of gruesome demise as a result of the dark mages rampage.<br/>
If she had, then Khessa prayed that it was over quickly for her, and that her baby brother was still safely tucked away at university on the other side of Zadia.<br/>
</p><p>
She could not stand to lose him too.<br/>
</p><p>
the blond human came back to camp with a couple of plump jackalopes, already gutted, to roast over the campfire for the two of them. He had given up trying to get her to eat the supplies that he had brought with him, but he was very much determined to get her to eat.<br/>
She had relented.<br/>
</p><p>
The roasted jackalope was succulent, and Khessa ate quite a bit of it in one go. The last time she had eaten was, if she could remember correctly, luncheon with Janai and a couple of close friends. She had been teasing Janai about her pet.<br/>
Janai had made a very rude gesture, one that Khessa was sure said pet had taught her.<br/>
She missed her sister.<br/>
</p><p>
The human was staring off into space, mind clearly occupied by something.<br/>
Khessa, out of boredom more than anything, decided pick his brains for a bit.<br/>
“what’s biting at you, hmmmm?” she purred, pretending that she had not spent most of the day shunning him the best she could.<br/>
</p><p>
The human snapped back to reality with a confused look.<br/>
“oh, ah, thinking about family.” 
“oh.” Well, Khessa thought to herself, nothing bad about that.<br/>
after a beat, he spoke again.<br/>
“kinda.. miss my sister, that’s all.” He looked so sad, like a kicked puppy. It was adorable, if in a depressed way.<br/>
“Was she not with you? Back at the war camp?” Khessa probed.<br/>
“yeh. Yeh she was. She……” he trailed off “she could not..did not.. want to leave da.. the king.” His eyes were glistening with the start of tears. “she’s still with the invasion force.”<br/>
“oh.” Khessa intoned.<br/>
“yeh.”<br/>
</p><p>
There was a long, silent pause between the two of them.<br/>
“why would she stay with him? Would her brother not be more important to her then loyalty to that monster?”<br/>
The human looked up at her. The bruise on his face seemed worse in the fire light between them.<br/>
After a moment, he spoke, voice haunted in a way that she had only heard a couple of times in her life, and only from the condemned.<br/>
“that monster.. that monster is our father. And he loves her more than he ever loved me.”<br/>
They did not speak for the rest of the night.<br/>
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
The passed the stone corpse of the dragon king by the next morning.<br/>
Khessa had only ever seen the fallen king from the air, when she had flown to the funeral, and to comfort his grieving widow.<br/>
It was even worse to see up close. The plant life that had stated to grow along the kings tail and back had softened the grey stone just a tad, but there was nothing that could detract from the shear anguish in his form.<br/>
</p><p>
And the spear in his chest.<br/>
</p><p>
The human kept his head bowed as they passed by, out of respect or shame Khessa could not tell, but the boy refused to look at the fallen king.<br/>
Thankfully the sight of the storm spire just up ahead gave them something else to look at.<br/>
The towering spire loomed up into spiralling clouds, apparently devoid of life. There was no sign of anyone else around, just the odd bird flitting about. But, looking down, there was clear footprints in the mud as they went, 3 sets of boots, large feline paw prints, and smaller reptilian pawprints.<br/>
The human perked up at the sight of them, softly poking the horse to pick up the pace a little, covering the remaining ground in record time.<br/>
Then came then came the interesting bit.<br/>
</p><p>
The last time she was at the storm spire, her sister had flown her to the top on her twin tailed tiger. Strait to the landing plaza. Which was a very, very, very long way up the side of the mountain.
When she turned about to ask the human (she needed to learn his name at some point. Better to order him about that way.) about how they were going to get up there, because she for one was not walking, he had vanished.<br/>
So had the horse.<br/>
</p><p>
She knew from prior visits that there was a stable block near the bottom of the spire for non winged mounts that did not like heights, and that was exactly where she found him, settling in his horse down in one of the stalls, stashing the tack in one of the cubby holes next to the covered stall. She waited by the door as the human made sure that the horse had food, water and a soft bed. This horse deserved no less than the finest treatment for being so loyal over the last couple of days.<br/>
Then Khessa made the mistake of asking how he planned to get them up the mountain without the aid of his valiant steed, since she was not, repeat, NOT, walking.<br/>
And there was nothing that he could do under the sun to make her.<br/>
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
“so, Soren, care to explain why.. Pyrrah, right?” the dragon huffed a yes “why Pyrrah here found you walking up the side of the storm spire, with the queen of the sunfire elves slung over your shoulder, yelling her head off?” Rayla’s question was a good one.<br/>
“well….”<br/>
</p><p>
The motley group sat together, human, elf, dragon and glow toad, drinking tea as Soren recounted the rebellion at the war camp, and his less then pleasant road trip with Khessa. And he informed them of what was on its way. He had only seen the prototype of the spell his father was planning to use, to be frank, it was terrifying. And the screaming….<br/>
Hopefully the combined Katolis and sunfire armies would get along long enough to get here in time to help.<br/>
</p><p>
And speaking of sunfire elves…<br/>
</p><p>
Khessa had curtly thanked Callum for the breathing spell once Pyrrah had plopped her and Soren at the landing plaza, brushed herself off and had marched off inside, the chain on her collar swinging like a pendulum, to make use of the baths, and to find a bed. She had had enough of the rough and tumble lifestyle for one lifetime thank you.<br/>
And humans. She had had enough of humans for the day.<br/>
</p><p>
She had sounded rather winded, partly form the whole thin air spell needed thing, and because she had spent a couple of hours calling Soren some very choice things at top volume.<br/>
Pyrrah had found them by following the yelling.<br/>
Once his message had been delivered, and both Ibis and Pyrrah had flown off to scout for the two armies that were on their ways, Soren followed Callum up to where he had been practising magic, (primal magic, Soren could barely believe it!) and had a long, rather overdue talk, about how he had been acting and well, apologising to Callum for being a jerk.<br/>
In the most Soren way possible.<br/>
Rayla had burst out laughing at the sound Callum had come out with when Soren had delivered a full barrel apology bear hug, the sort that Callum would later insist popped one of his ribs. 
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
Things simmered down again as the afternoon progressed, with the kids (and Soren) ransacking the pantry attached to the dragon guard’s living quarters for anything still edible to make dinner, with Rayla attempting to make a couple of traditional moon shadow dishes for the boys, and Callum managing to make some human dishes with the Zadian ingredients.<br/>
It did not turn out half bad, despite Rayla not being a good cook, and Callum being a bit out of his depth.<br/>
They tried to Give Khessa some food too, but they got no response when they had knocked on the door to the room she had locked herself in.<br/>
Ibis enjoyed the fusion dish that he was presented with upon his return, at least.
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
The human/elf team up got to the storm spire just before sunset.<br/>
The rebellion had stolen every horse that they could on the way out of the camp, to hinder the advance of the invasion force. it had meant that there was plenty of mounts to go around when they met up with the sunfire forces- they had made it to the spire in record time. The combined force quickly set to building defences around the makeshift tent city that was blooming next to the stables, and to trying to work out how they were going to repel what was coming.<br/>
</p><p>
A couple of skywing and dragon scouts had been dispatched to keep an eye on the movements of Viren’s army, and the reports that had come back were.. less than promising.<br/>
The spell Viren had cast on the remaining troops had turned them into what could only be described as magma titan style mindless monsters, just as Soren had reported.<br/>
Stiff drinks were needed after that bit of news got around.
</p><p>
-
</p><p>
Amaya hugged the stuffing out of the princes the moment she arrived.<br/>
Janai pretended that she did not have a goofy smile on her face, watching the touching reunion. There was a hole in her heart that was freely bleeding with each beat, but she tried her hardest not to show it around her troops. They needed a strong leader after the hell that they had been trough over the last couple of days.<br/>
</p><p>
That mage would pay for what he did.<br/>
</p><p>
She and Amaya had had a long, if a bit one sided argument over who would get to display that mages head on a pike outside who’s capital city.<br/>
Janai wanted to think that she had won.<br/>
Amaya disagreed.<br/>
</p><p>
But now the two of them were standing together, in front of map, talking with some of the surviving officers about defence plans, bouncing ideas off of each other. Amaya had manged to hammer together some sort basic plan as they travelled, but it needed a lot of work. it helped that now the armies were all in one place, they could take stock of what they had to work with.<br/>
And then there was the matter of getting everyone to get along.<br/>
So it was taking a while.<br/>
</p><p>
Janai was in the middle of trying to organise some sort of Calvary backup when she saw a flash of yellow gold out of the corner of her eye.<br/>
</p><p>
She tried to ignore it- she had been seeing flashes of what looked like Khessa for the last 2 or so days. Just fleeting glances of light and yellow that her grieving brain made out to be her sister. Her heart kept braking each and every time this happened.<br/>
The fact that Suri, her sisters loyal high mage, had no idea what had happened to her after his possession and near death was not helping her state of mind- she had been gone by the time he had come around, coughing up blood.<br/>
</p><p>
And they had searched. Oh did they search. But there was no trace of Khessa anywhere.<br/>
</p><p>
She refused to look at the spector, not willing to receive another blow to her already damaged feelings. She only looked up from the map she was leaning over when there was a rustle of gilded fabric, and Amaya moved away from her, letting someone else stand between them. someone in battered gold and white robes, a crown, a cold iron collar around her neck, and the disgruntled look of someone who had had a rough couple of days.<br/>
</p><p>
But she was very alive. Smug looking even.<br/>
</p><p>
Janai stared, open mouthed for a moment.<br/>
“really sister?” Khessa sounded as smug as she ever did “You look like you had just seen a g-“<br/>
</p><p>
Khessa was cut off as Janai let out a huge sob and pulled her into a huge, shaking hug. Her sister froze for the smallest of moments, then reciprocated, Khessa and Janai sank to the floor together, sobbing and holding each other, not quite believing what they were seeing. They had both thought that the other had died! To hell with what the other people in the room thought!<br/>
</p><p>
Amaya let them have their space, not bothering to hide the goofy smile on her face. Yes, the Sunfire queen was a jerk, but she was Janai’s jerk. She could learn to live with that. A flash of colour made her look over to where Callum and Soren where both peering out form the hall way that led into the dragon guard sleeping quarters.<br/>
The two of them had somehow flushed Khessa out of her hiding place.<br/>
They both gave her big grins and thumbs up, then ducked back into to hall, mission accomplished.<br/>
Amaya chuckled to herself.<br/>
Soren had promised to tell her all about his little adventure with queen sunny-butt once things had calmed down that evening, and she was looking forward to it.<br/>
She was also looking forward to watching her reaction to fining out that her sisters ‘pet’ had upgraded to ‘potential sister in law’.
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